Barry Eichner | | | | Barry, aka “… the nosh guy…” has lived in Philadelphia on and off for nearly 20 years, with brief diversions to New York and Washington DC. He works as the Business Development and Operations Manager for a chain of medical spas and publishes Foodrulez.com, a blog about his favorite topic – FOOD!! Barry enjoys the buffet of culture that Philadelphia has to offer, the vast amount of music, theatre, art and of course, food. You can find him people watching in any of the city’s coffee shops, biking on Kelly Drive, or noshing in one of the city’s spectacular restaurants.

I was thrilled to be invited to judge the Attic Youth Center's Cupcake Contest held at the William Way Center last Friday. The Center's youth created this program to as a bake sale to help raise funds and turned it into a fun contest. I was one of 3 judges, Chris Bartlett, Executive Director of the William Way Center and Kathleen Galan from Philly Cupcake were my fellow judges. We had a blast - especially since we got to taste 11 - that's right 11 cupcakes. When the volunteers from the Attic began offering us the cupcakes to taste, they handed us half of a cupcake! I looked at it and said, "Ladies, cut this into a smaller piece, it's swim suit season and we have a long afternoon of cupcake eating ahead of us!" All I needed was a bite to know if I loved it or hated it!

It seems that all of the judges agreed that DEATH by chocolate was the hands down favorite! I have to tell you I died a little when I tasted it! I'm not sure what it is about chocolate - but it hits my happy spot every time! Now, it hits my happy spot multiple times when there's an Oreo cookie inside a chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing!

It was a great event and everyone had a blast!

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